Monday, May 31, 2010

JERUSALEM — Israeli naval commandos raided a flotilla carrying thousands of tons of supplies for Gaza in international waters on Monday morning, killing at least 10 people, according to the Israeli military and activists traveling with the flotilla. Some Israeli news reports put the death toll higher.

The confrontation drew widespread international condemnation of Israel, with Israeli envoys summoned to explain their country’s actions in several European countries.

The criticism offered a propaganda coup to Israel’s foes, particularly Hamas, the militant group that holds sway in Gaza, and damaged Israel’s ties to Turkey, one of its most important Muslim partners and the unofficial sponsor of the Gaza-bound convoy. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cut short a visit to Latin America to return home.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his plans for meeting with President Obama in Washington on Tuesday, an Israeli government official confirmed. Mr. Netanyahu, who is visiting Canada, planned to return home Monday to deal with fallout from the raid, the official said.

Once again Israel has chosen to use their military in a way that could only be described as disproportionate, only this time they weren't firing on "suspected Hamas militants" which gave them the slightest bit of cover last year. No, this time they were firing on unarmed activist on a humanitarian mission quasi sponsored by one of our mor important allied countries int the Muslim world Turkey. So lets check the resposes that others have given so far.

Within hours, diplomatic repercussions began to spread from the Mediterranean to Europe where Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, called for a full inquiry into the incident and the immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

snip

A joint statement from Robert Serry and Filippo Grandi, two senior United Nations officials involved in the Middle East peace process and humanitarian aid to Gaza, condemned the raid, which they said was “apparently in international waters.”

“We wish to make clear that such tragedies are entirely avoidable if Israel heeds the repeated calls of the international community to end its counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza,” the officials said.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France called Israel’s use of force “disproportionate,”

snip

Turkey strongly condemned the Israeli military action.

“Regardless of any reasoning, such actions against civilians engaged in only peaceful activities are unacceptable,” said a statement on the Foreign Ministry’s Web site on Monday. “Israel will be required to face the consequences of this act that involves violation of the international law.”

snip

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said Israel should provide a full explanation of what happened. News reports said the authorities in Egypt and Jordan, two Arab neighbors which have peace treaties with Israel, had summoned Israeli envoys to protest the action.

That kind of all sounds pretty much the same right? So what has our response been so far?

Bill Burton, a deputy press secretary for the White House, said, “The United States deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy.”

Working to understand the circumstances? WHAT THE FUCK?

That's pretty much sounds like the same load of bullshit we were fed after Israel assaulted the Gaza strip a little over a year ago now. And you know what? You have a better chance of hitting the lottery....in every state than the chance there is that you will hear anything from the U.S. in any stronger terms than that. Moreso, and definitely more damaging, is that we will probably block any and all investigations into the matter just like we did with the Goldstone report.

How many times will we use a charge of anti Semitism to help excuse this kind of behavior from Israel? How many of our other allies will we have to alienate in the name of covering their asses? And for what? Why exactly are we going to cede all moral high ground yet again to defend the indefensible?

There isn't a politician in Washington who will be willing to denounce Israel over this and that goes all the way up to President Obama. As much as we bemoan bank bailouts and oil spills, that may be a reality that is more perilous to our nation than anything else going on right now. When a country knows that no matter what they do you will never, EVER call them out, what exactly do you expect them to do? How exactly do you expect them to act when any move to hold them accountable for their behavior will be seen as political suicide?

I wish it were not so, but you just wait and see. When its all said and done there will be us and Israel on the one side, and pretty much the rest of the world on the other. It is what it is.

On this Memorial Day we honor the service of our soldiers who paid the ultimate price in the fight for both our security and our freedom. Thank you isn't a strong enough phrase to convey our appreciation. On a personal note I'm thankful that a good friend is on the way home safe and sound from a tour overseas and I pray for those still in harm's way. Happy Memorial Day!!!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Glenn Beck is obviously an asshole but even for him this has raised the bar of douchebaggery at this point. Going after President Obama's kids is not ok and somebody should remind him of that. At some point political commentary or satire crosses what I liked to call the "Get Fucked Up" line and the folks crossing that line end up having to pay major consequences. If he could do it and get away with it I'm sure Obama himself would slap the taste out of Beck's mouth behind this bullshit. Here's hoping that one day soon he tries the wrong person who doesn't have quite as much to lose....

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

For some time it was apparent that Charlie Crist wouldn't make it out of a Republican primary with Marco Rubio so just before he had his supposed "revelation" that he was really an independent he started to move away from his party in hopes of picking off some Democratic voters in the general election. Most notably he vetoed a right wing education bill which garnered him a lot of support from teachers unions.

But make no mistake about it, Charlie Crist IS a Republican. Up until now his strategy has been easy though. Just throw Democratic voters a few bones on legislation which wasn't very popular anyway but stay away from truly Democratic platform issues.

Well his time is about up.

With Congress and the White House set to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell Crist is FINALLY going to have to show reveal who he really is. See there is no way on God's green earth that he can win in November without a significant number of Republicans voting for him. Democratic voters are the icing on the cake but Republicans are still his base. And seeing as how just Monday he opposed repeal its going to be VERY interesting to see just how willing he is to alienate his right wing base by supporting repeal especially seeing as how the REAL Democrat in the race, Kendrick Meek, is calling on him to make his stance known.

MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. - On Monday, the White House announced it would back a vote to repeal the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which has prevented gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military for nearly two decades. In the past, both Governor Crist and Speaker Rubio have stood with the far right and opposed the repeal of this discriminatory policy that dishonors our men and women in uniform.

"Floridians deserve to know - Would Governor Crist and Speaker Rubio vote against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" pending in Congress right now? Since 1994, over 13,000 service members have been discharged under this law. For years, Kendrick has stood with our brave service members and fought to repeal this discriminatory policy. Now, Kendrick is the lone progressive running against two conservatives. Do the governor and Speaker Rubio still stand with the far right instead of our men and women in uniform?" asked Adam Sharon, Kendrick Meek For Florida communications director.

A Gallup poll released earlier this month found that 70 percent of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

On Monday, Governor Crist told reporters, "I think the current policy has worked pretty well for America. I don't know why there is any need for change at this time." Does that mean he would vote against this repeal in the Senate?

I have a feeling that the more Meek calls on Crist to reveal where he stands on serious Democratic platform issues, the more Democratic voters will turn away from him and come home for Meek. All I'm asking is that you pay attention and don't let Crist get away with perpetrating a fraud. He is not a Democrat, Kendrick Meek is!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I have been just as upset about the oil spill in the gulf as anybody else, especially with BP's lying and obfusication. But here lately people, even those on the left, have started to point the finger at the Obama administration as if the whole thing is their fault. I mean every day now I turn on my TV and there is some pundit intimating that President Obama should don a cape, fly down to Louisianna and use his heat ray vision to stop the spill. Or some such. Yet none of these people who claim the administration should either be doing something more and or something else ever offer up what that more or different approach should be.

Thankfully last night Rachel Maddow asked the question that most of these folks should have address first, is there anything more that COULD be done? Turns out, unfortunately for us all, it seems that there isn't.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

There is no other way to describe this in a way that is factually accurate than to call it what it was, domestic terrorism...

In the final moments of their lives, West Memphis Police Department veterans Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans encountered Thursday an old white Plymouth Voyager minivan carrying 16-year-old Joe Kane and his 45-year-old father, Jerry R. Kane -- a man who unbeknownst to them harbored extreme anti-government views. He also had a record of previous trouble with police and a philosophy, which he credited to the Bible, of applying overwhelming violence to "conquer" foes.

Increasingly surreal revelations Friday about the Kanes gradually led to a late-evening confirmation by Arkansas State Police that Jerry Kane of Chester, Ohio, and Joe, of unknown residence, were indeed the dead suspects they believe killed Evans and Paudert -- the son of the town's chief of police.

The Kanes later wounded Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Deputy Chief W.A. Wren in the conclusive shootout at Walmart in which father and son were killed.

snip

In the YouTube video he said, "You have to kill them all. So what we're after here is not fighting, it's conquering. I don't want to have to kill anybody, but if they keep messing with me, that's what it's going to have to come out. That's what it's going to come down to, is I'm going to have to kill. And if I have to kill one, then I'm not going to be able to stop, I just know it."

snip

Material on the website promoting Kane's foreclosure-advising business displays classic rhetoric experts say is associated with anti-government groups. Topics discussed on the site include microchips inserted into people's bodies, plots involving the H1N1 vaccine and the contention that U.S. dollars don't constitute real money.

"It's a classic Patriot or Sovereign Citizen website,'' said Mark Potok, director of the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.

In that YouTube clip about the "rogue" IRS agent, in which Jerry described his view of the proper use of violence, his son is shown laughing and offering to deal with the agent himself: "If you pay for the bat, I'll take care of the problem." Later, the son describes his view on violence: "They drew first blood. You are self-defending."

Im going to go out on a limb and say most folks didn't even hear about this incident. I mean after all it didn't happen in Times Square in New York City. It happened in middle America where all the "patriots" supposedly live. But I will say this much, people had better start paying attention. These crazy right wing extremists are only going to get worse especially with jack ass fearmongerers steadily fanning their flames.

Hopefully at some point the mainstream media will catch up and we won't be having to mourn the death of any more police officers at the hands of these assholes.

It seems that Adam Sewer is expecting a lot of Rand Paul fans slash other Libertarians to defend him and his stance against the Civil Rights act and Adam isn't having it. I applaud him for having the foresight to nip that shit in the bud.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

I wonder if all or even most of the sheep in the rank and file of the Tea Party realize that they are pushing to repeal the 17th amendment to the Constitution, taking their ability to vote for their US Senators out of their own hands and giving that power to the state legislatures. The same state legislatures where you can find some of the most corrupt politicians in the world.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I understand why many liberals and progressives think we should just walk away from the war in Afghanistan but generally I totally disagree. Its not that I'm over here quaking in my boots but more so that there is a real and serious threat coming from the region and as important we went over there and fucked up that country, the least we can do is try to rebuild it before we leave. But hey I'm sure this is one of those issues where neither of us will be persuaded and so be it.

But the lengths some of these folks will go to in order to try to hit the Obama administration for not getting out is getting to the point of being laughable. The latest is that after Eric Holder said they have proof that the failed Times Square bomber on the Sunday shows many on the other side of the fence sounded alarms of skepticism. And they are trying SO hard to prove he was lying that they aligned themselves with Kit Bond of all people. You see Kit Bond came out after an intelligence briefing and initially said in pretty generic terms that Holder had overstated the connections between the failed bomber and the Pakistani Taliban. You should have seen these folks breaking their neck to offer this up as "proof" that we had been lied to.

Coming from Kit Bond? Seriously?

Well thankfully Bond came out today and used the type of language with regards to this situation that left no doubt why he was trying to undermine Holder's assertions.

I wonder how many of these folks are gonna run a correction or in the alternative say that they agree with Bond that Holder has "executed a hostile takeover of the intelligence agencies".

See when you are quick to jump on some bullshit, no matter who is shoveling it, just to try to make your case, often times it blows up right in your face. People should learn from this, but I doubt they will.

Monday, May 10, 2010

I have been warning people on the left not to fall too much in love with Andrew Sullivan just because he was disenchanted with the Republican Party. See he is still a flaming right winger who doesn't care much for folks on the low end of the totem pole, he just found a few issues to rail against the GOP about like torture and indefinite detention and he also wishes they packaged their bullshit up better but that's about it. Well I learned something else about Sully today that I hadn't been aware of till now:

Nine years ago Andrew Sullivan was caught up in a sex scandal when an anonymous personal ad he took out on a site called barebackcity.com was exposed by gay journalist and outing proponent Michelangelo Signorile. Sullivan claimed that he was a victim of "sexual McCarthyism" and sampling Clarence Thomas, called the whole incident the "high-tech lynching of an uppity homo." Back then, I defended Sullivan's right to sexual privacy. But I also noted that given the fact that Sullivan had made a career of lambasting the sexual promiscuity of fellow gay men (including analogizing unprotected oral sex with murder), as well as the peccadillos of our first "queer" president, Bill Clinton—Sullivan had opened himself up as a target. What he wanted was not sexual privacy (an ethic extending to all), but sexual secrecy for himself with the attendant hypocritical right to wag his finger at those whose secrets became hot public messes.

So here is Sully being the world's biggest hypocrite trolling a website for random sexual encounters while blasting other gay men for doing the exact same thing. And not only did he do this, he then when outed did not apologize but instead blasted the people who outed him.

See he was pretty sure he had a right to privacy in that matter. And I don't necessarily disagree.

But its amazing that a guy who could take that stance about his own private life would now be arguing that Elena Kagan should be made to answer on the record whether she is gay or not. Mind you I don't know if she is or she isn't and I truly couldn't care either way, but surely she should have the same expectation of privacy that Sully himself felt he should have been afforded don't you think?

And one has to wonder what kind of outrage Sully would evince should employers start requiring every worker to disclose their sexual orientation on applications and or in hiring interviews. Some how I doubt mightily that he would think that kosher, yet in the case of Kagan its paramount that we know.

Why?

The funny thing is if pressed on the issue he couldn't possibly come up with a good answer. Supreme Court justices are given the ultimate tenure, they have that job for life. So there is no way anybody could pressure her by threatening to out her should she be confirmed because at that point she would lose nothing if it came out. If somebody came out today and said Sam Alito was "teh ghey" it would have no bearing on his standing as a justice and even if some of us would point out the hypocrisy thats about the most we would get out of it. There is nothing about being a Supreme Court justice that would make her being gay a germane fact one way or another.

Unless...

Unless Sully is trying to say that gay people think different from the rest of us and all things being equal would interpret the law in a different way.

Is that REALLY the impression he wants to make? Is that REALLY a path he wants to go down? I sincerely doubt it. Rather I think as is usual with him he just found some silly ass cause to jump on and so he went at it feet first. One can only hope that this does not become a crusade for him like Sarah Palin's daughter did.

Then again once an obsessed asshole, always an obssessed asshole so I wouldn't expect anything less.

Even people on the left opposed to Kagan's nomination should be able to see how wrong it is for this to be a focus of her confirmation process. If not I am going to be very dissappointed in a lot of people because if Republicans/right wingers were to do it we for damn sure wouldn't think it was ok.

Most of the people following the nomination process to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens had pegged Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the top choice almost from the start. Now some on the left, mostly the truly far left at this point, have raised objections about Kagan but I tried to be open minded about the situation and checked into every allegation and just doesn't seem to be any there, there. Obviously the Republicans will oppose her cuz at this point that's just what they do. But I can't see a serious reason to oppose her from the left. Yes, maybe there were more liberal/progressive choices that President Obama could have made but that doesn't diminish who Kagan is and what she can bring to the highest court in the land. So as for me I will be supporting the nomination wholeheartedly and I hope most of the people on the left decide to do the same.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

I know that the mainstream media has been trying like hell to frame everything the far right GOP does as a false equivalency with the Democratic Party but even they won't be able to successfully spin away Senator Robert Bennett's defeat yesterday. In the last few decades nobody can point to a Democrat who was as reliably liberal as Bennett was reliably conservative in voting records who was ousted as an incumbent before even having the opportunity to run against an opponent in a primary. And what exactly was Bennett's great offense? One vote. The vote for the bank bailout that while hugely unpopular probably did in fact keep our banking and financial industry from totally crashing.

Unfortunately in this case rather than trying to draw a false equivalence, the MSM will just ignore it and act as if it never happened. Its sad that unless they can try to paint a story as something both sides do the media would rather just look away than actually have to report the facts. It is what it is...

Marco Rubio flip flopping on the Arizona "Papers Please" unconstitutional immigration racial profiling law was as predictable Michael Steele making an ass out of himself. After the teabaggers got after him about his opposition he couldn't wait to "clarify" his remarks and stand with the white supremecists and xenophobes pushing that steaming pile of bullshit. Oh and neither the statistics nor the sherriffs are on his side when he tries to sell that bullshit line about Mexican violence spilling over into Arizona.

Florida deserves a helluva lot better than this.

Vote Kendrick Meek in November and get all of your friends and family members to do the same.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

I don't think many people will ever mistake Senator John Thune for an intellectual heavyweight, but today he said something pretty profound:

Sen. John Thune (R) of South Dakota, a member of the Senate Republican leadership, thinks he knows why Corker is willing to occasionally break party ranks and work with Dems.

"I think he's a guy who's willing to get down into the weeds," said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who is No. 4 in GOP leadership. "Because [Corker] immerses himself in that and understands it so well -- the positions he adopts may not always be the ones that everyone else in our conference comes to."

Maybe it wasn't so much profound as much as it was unintentionally honest. Simply put in Thune's own words Republican leadership in the Senate isn't interested in policy but Corker is so he may disagree with them on policies that may actually be good for the country but were proposed by Democrats.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

I bring up my blog every day but I rarely feel the motivation to post anything any more. I mean I see things every day in the news that probably deserve a post but the motivation, especially when it comes to trying to promote the Obama administration's agenda, has waned for me somewhat.

I'm a progressive and a Democrat and maybe not in that order but its getting harder and harder to defend the way the White House treats their base. And I'm not talking about some far left base that throws hissy fits when they don't get any and everything they hope for plus a pony. I am talking about the policy wonks who have proven ideas. Im talking about the people who have worked in the federal government before an know about what they are talking about. Im talking about all the supporters who phone banked and went door to door and blogged to help get President Obama elected because he promised a new kind of politics. And no that new kind of politics was never sold as some bold new "bipartisanship". No we were told that good ideas would trump all no matter which side they came from.

But that isn't what is happening these days. Instead the White House which takes great delight in beating up on cable news shows (rightly so in many occasions) enables those very jack asses by creating and perpetrating all of these false equivalencies between the truly wacky far right and the reasonable and most of the time correct left/liberal/progressive wing of his party. Its like he feels to dismiss idiotic complaints that right wingers will continue to make about his agenda he has to balance it by devaluing constructive criticism from the left that would actually help on policy.

The stimulus bill, health care reform, climate change, financial regulation, immigration reform. Every single issue has all of a sudden become about not doing that which is right and most effective but instead that which looks most "centrist". Unfortunately for us all the because the right wing in this country has gone over a cliff the center has shifted dramatically in that direction. And the result ultimately will be legislation that isn't nearly as effective as it could have and should have been. And an electorate that no longer trusts Democrats.

You see it every day where the Republicans are kicking our asses in the enthusiasm gap. And why shouldn't they? When almost every single day this White House that most of us on the left fought terribly hard for keeps repeatedly kicking us in the teeth and giving us their ass to kiss?

Oh and I know some folks will chime in "but look at all Democrats have done". Yeah, I have used that argument before and on some levels it has standing. But even when we win battles in legislation, we are losing the war of public opinion. And if you think that doesn't matter, just wait and see what happen if the House really does go back to the Republicans after November. Not a got damn thing will get done and there will be investigations on top of investigations over bullshit.

And although I had my reservations last year, I have to say that now losing the House is a real possibility.

Why? Because if the Democratic President and his aides are constantly shitting on his most ardent supporters who is going to not only vote for other Democrats in the midterms, but help get out other voters to vote for Democrats in the midterms?

Just in the last few weeks you have President Obama practically chanting "Drill Baby Drill". You have him perpetrating the fraudulent argument that liberal judges were "activists". You have his White House directing Senator Dodd to weaken the financial regulation bill in the name of bullshit "bipartisanship". And of course we have his weaksauce deficit commission which will no doubt end up wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare rather than defense spending.

I rememeber last year when Paul Krugman was ripping President Obama to shreds because he didn't fight for a bigger, more effective stimulus bill. He presented all kinds of evidence to back up his argument and I remember having some skepticism. I mean I really was excited about Obama's presidency but on the other hand I really respected Krugman on economics so the two were hard to reconcile. Ultimately I figured maybe it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But if you look at unemployment right now there is no doubt that Krugman was right. And here's the thing, having a bigger better bill wouldn't have brought any more scorn than the bill that passed did because the bill that passed was called socialism and every other scary word that Republicans could come up with.

The key difference is that by this time its highly likely that a bigger better bill would have been much more effective and unemployment would have been much closer to 5% than 10%. In that situation its much easier to explain how effective the bill is because the results are right there in front of you. It would have also made it a lot harder for anybody to take the Tea Baggers seriously. But instead we went the "Super Centrist" route and let Presidents Nelson, Lieberman, and Snowe write the bill and now not only did we get blasted on the front in, to this day the majority of Americans don't think the stimulus worked.

Yeah I know whether they think it worked or not SHOULDN'T be a big deal as long as it actually works. But again this is what I am talking about when it comes to the war of public opinion. After the voters toss Democrats out on their ass in November none of them will attribute any subsequent positive changes to the economy to the stimulus bill. For them it will all be magic due to the fact that the shitty socialist Dems aren't in power any more.

And its kinda easy when the White House is pretty much helping Republicans frame it that way.

So I am kind of sitting on the sidelines at the moment trying to get the fire back. The sad thing is its not President Obama's electoral prospects that are being hurt here. The Republicans don't have a candidate that their base will accept that would also be a viable national candidate. So unless everything tanks all at once President Obama will walk in 2012. But every Democratic candidate at the ballot box this year will be weighed down by his rhetoric. They will all be fighting an uphill battle to get Democrats to come out and vote for them even in heavy democratic districts and blue states.

Ironically it may be that the best way for Democrats to get reelected this year is to start standing on Democratic principles and punching the White House from the left at times. Kendrick Meek who has my full support would do well to start punching NOW on off shore drilling. President Obama seems to be dead set on pressing ahead even with a disaster taking shape off the gulf coast. Its time to get Democrats and some true independents fired up by not just following him down this Super Centrist path all the damn time.

Im not talking about any Jane Hamsher FDL firebagger bullshit. Im talking about mainstream consensus progressive/liberal/democratic princples. Off shore drilling has never been a staple of a Democratic agenda and it shouldn't be now just to appease some Republican assholes who will never vote for anything anyway.

My prediction is that those Democrats who decided to break with the administration on serious policy issues from the left will fire up the base and get reelected. Those who decide to back him on every subject are going to get burned. You can't get people "Fired up and Ready to go" with some centrist bullshit that won't work. It just doesn't work that way.

So bear with me while I try to get back into the swing of things. You may notice a shift in tone but for the most part when I post you will see the same passion because I will be more choosey about which topics I get after. But I am going to start being a lot more openly critical of stupid moves by this administration. Its really for their own good and for the good of the Democratic Party because my biggest fear is a Republican Congress at such a critical moment in our history.